Pere among 14 entries for Down Royal feature

Notre Pere, winner of the Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup in April, is among 14 five-day confirmations for the JNwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal on Saturday.

Jim Dreaper's eight-year-old also landed the Coral Welsh National last winter and features in what looks an open renewal of Northern Ireland's premier jumps race.

Schindlers Hunt, runner-up to Notre Pere at Punchestown, could reoppose and, along with Siegemaster, represents Dessie Hughes. War Of Attrition, the 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup hero and runner-up in this race later that year, is also a possible.

Casey Jones, Natal, Snowy Morning, Trotsky and Wheresben complete the home entry, while Paul Nicholls, who sent out Kauto Star to lift this prize last year, relies upon John Smith's Grand National third My Will this time.

Kauto Star's owner Clive Smith explained why the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero was not amongst the entries saying, "We are going to go for the Betfair Chase (at Haydock), which is the ideal time to race at three miles, rather than County Down."

The other British-trained hopefuls are Darkness, Joe Lively, Roll Along and The Listener.

Jimmy Lambe is to check on ground conditions before committing Natal. The County Tyrone trainer is keen to run the former Nicholls inmate at his local track, but only if the going is not too soft.

Should the ground be unsuitable then Natal could be re-routed to the Clonmel Oil Chase the following Thursday. "I'll make a decision one way or the other later in the week," said Lambe.

"We're getting a lot of rain and three miles in testing conditions might be too much for him. The furthest he's won for me so far was two and three-quarter miles at Galway. When he was with Paul (Nicholls) he won mainly over two and two and a half, so we'd be going into unchartered territory.

"I wouldn't mind running him over three miles on good ground but it's going to be heavy. He works like a horse that will get three miles. He worked at Leopardstown last week and worked very pleasingly.

"He's fit he's well and in really good form. At the moment we are doing everything we can to run him at Down Royal, but I do have the option of running him at Clonmel. That might be tailor-made for him.

"Being a northern trainer, and Down Royal being only 25 minutes up the road, it's very tempting to go there. It's a Grade One chase and Kauto Star's not travelling. We'd like to go there, but at least we have an alternative."